hadriel_logs | Intro Log: A Day at the Beach

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Intro Log: A Day at the Beach

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for December
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: December 10th-13th
Warnings: None

It's icy cold when you wake up, so let's hope you arrived here wearing warm clothes. They're not too easy to find right now, either - Hadriel is a pretty unwelcoming place. You're on the floor of the colosseum, which is sandy and (right now) a bit frosty. It's you, the other newcomers - and of course, a battalion of newly-arrived giant scorpions, just as confused as you and ready to fight. They're big and fast, they've got armor covering their creepy bodies, and that stinger will seriously mess you up if you're not careful. So... welcome to Hadriel!

You might be cold, but the Door doesn't seem to be. Scattered across the ground of the colosseum can be found some beach towels with creative designs. And if that's not enough, you'll be all prepared for a day at the beach with these cute sandals (jandals?). Too bad there's no beach and it's really cold and everything sucks, right?

Once you've finished dreaming about a warm beach vacation, feel free to look around. You can explore the rest of the city! Find a house, a new monster, a project to help with, or simply scavenge for supplies. Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers December 10th-13th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► All characters arrive with phones that have network communication and the newbie guide installed.
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!

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Things are a little different this time at the Speakeasy -- and possibly for the better. If you found notes around the city pointing in the location of the local gaming and watering hole, there's a new addendum even for those who have been in Hadriel for some time now:

Warmth.

Not that it's entirely necessary. After all, the building lights up like a quiet beacon in the distance. Of the few places in the city, the Speakeasy is dimly lit and warm between the indoor firepit within the lounge area and the electricity powering the establishment. While the lighting is kept at a minimum, music still plays from the jukebox and sound system and the dancefloor is open to any who wish to venture onto it. The energy is more subdued than usual, but so long as it's a haven from the cold outside, that might suffice enough for some. If you're looking for anything specific to satisfy your palate, just ask a bartender what you need.

Upstairs you will find the Game Room, which houses a variety of recreational activities. Between the casino style activities, you can find board games such as checkers, chess, and Battleship, and even an arcade machine with many two player options and several selections to choose from.

It's good to have some indoor options this time of year, right?

[ooc: This is the (kinda) monthly Welcome Dance Night! Consider this an open mingle thread for both old and new folks alike. Tag in, tag out, hit up your friends or rivals or meet new people. Assume that this is set around the 12th. At the time being, the Speakeasy is one of the few places in the city that is powered by electricity, as is explained here.]

Edited 2018-12-11 01:07 (UTC)

Back at the bar, then.

It doesn't take her too long. The first week after defrosting is pretty quickly a dull one, after having a trying and pointless conversation with people who seemed to think they could bargain with her, and then spending much of the rest of the first day disappointed that Yusuke is more trouble than he's worth. There are things to discover out past the city and she'll surely go investigate on her own time, but before that, she would rather find out more about what she missed.

First stop is to get a much-needed drink. "What do you have?" she'll ask any bartender she can find, for as she recalls, the last time she came through their supplies of alcohol were running miserably low - and now in this icy wasteland, she suspects that hasn't improved any.

After that, she'll seek familiar faces to join - although she's realizing some of the usual suspects don't seem to be here tonight. Where is Jane? Anyone else she's at least on tolerable terms with, though, she'll gladly pull up a chair. "What did I miss?"

New? Caedra keeps an eye out for people she hasn't met yet. Some of them might prove useful on this new, icy world. Others would be best met so that she knows who to avoid in the future. Anyone who arrived this month or in November may well have an extra glass pushed their way if their eyes linger on her. "Care to join me for a drink? I don't believe we've met."

Well-dressed in furs and wool, with those pitch black eyes and that cruel little smile - you wouldn't pass up such an invitation, would you?

If there's one place a Norsemen is bound to be found, it's definitely where there's a steady supply of alcohol. Ivar is sitting down with the biggest glass of alcohol the bartenders would allow him to have. Hmph. Someone needs to brew some more around here and fast.

He takes long gulps of it while looking around the speakeasy, his sharp blue eyes missing nothing. When he notices a woman staring at him in an odd fashion, it gets his attention. She's staring at him almost like she knows him. When she approaches, the first thing that gets his attention are those eyes. What is she? But he doesn't show any fear. "Yes?" He asks, a surprising amount of condescending irritation put into the single word.

"Sit, my dear," she encourages, and lets the patient smile she shows on the outside cover for the giddy grin she feels. Oh, Ivar, how you have been missed! But sadly like many before him, it seems that having returned, he may have forgotten his time here entirely.

A shame, that. But he can be re-educated. He had been so eager to learn the last time, after all. She had promised him so many things, and he had gone before his potential could fully be realized. She had shown him flight, and blood, and the power of the Abyss itself; had shown him images of the great lord she serves and had begun teaching Ivar some of the things Amamot had shown her when she was a young thing like him.

So much promise, held in a bloodthirsty crippled pet. He gets an extra-tall glass of wine, full to the brim.

"I am Caedra, and you were here once before. Do you remember anything of it?"

Ivar sits down, the only sign of pain the slight flicker in his eyes as he takes in Caedra's appearance. She can't be human, not with eyes like that. What does that make her? A goddess? The servant of a god? "I've been told that. But no, I don't remember anything. I would remember someone like you."

He leans forward, accepting the wine without a word of thanks. "So you have me at a disadvantage. You seem to know who I am, but I have no idea who you are." That smile of her's...he's worn smiles like that before. They disarm someone because they don't show the knife's edge hidden beneath them. Not that he ever keeps them up for too long. Ivar's far too unstable for that.

Ivar was trustworthy before - at least, as far as one can trust a creature ready to unleash a frenzy on anything within reach at any moment - but it's hard to know if things have changed this time around. He's cautious, and rightfully so, but thankfully he seems to be willing to listen. After a sip of her own drink, she continues.

"I know. This place makes things more confusing than necessary. When we met the first time, before, you asked if I was völva, and I've used that explanation ever since to those here who wouldn't be inclined to appreciate the truth, which is that I am what my people call tanar'ri, and what yours - or perhaps your Christian enemies, anyway, call a demon."

May as well be straight with the kid, she figures. She was last time, and it paid off well.

Ivar nods, leaning forward, now much interested in Caedra. The idea that she might be a demon provokes neither disgust or fear. "You have power." It's not a question, merely a confirmation. His upbringing has taught him such things are possible. Demon or volva, she would definitely have some mystic tools at her disposal, that was clear enough.

"So you serve the gods?" Ivar was devout to his own pantheon, scorning all others as being inferior.

"Not these gods. They aren't deserving of the title. Where are their worshipers?" she asks, with a condescending smirk. "I serve no gods, but rather one of my own - a man who rivals them in power and seeks to destroy those that our enemies worship."

A half-truth, only by omission. With skill and power and assistants like herself, Amamot will destroy a lot more than the pathetic gods that the mortals beg favor from, but at least the omission is fairly harmless for now. "I showed you before, but as you don't remember..."

Caedra lifts her hand off the stem of her wine glass and lays it on the table, palm up. With a few spoken words in Abyssal, an image is conjured above it - one that spans the length of the table itself, depicting Amamot in his blood-spattered armor, massive wings spread and horned staff in hand as he claws his way through a regiment of infernal creatures and their angelic allies.

"He is the only one worthy of my service, and it is he who gave me the power I wield."

Ivar watches the image with rapt attention. He knows about the existence of other gods, but so often, they seem weak and inferior to his own Norse ones. This one, though, he looks as fierce and warlike as any of those like Thor or Tyr. "He looks powerful indeed. What is his name?"

He looks back at Caedra with something beginning to seem like respect. "Show me something else." He's sure that conjuring images is not the extent of what she can do.

"Lord Amamot Nisariel," she replies, voice tinted with not just pride but affection. "He has many other titles, though. Some have taken to calling him the Conqueror Lord lately."

Much-deserved, too, for how many of the surehsi can lay claim to having enough raw power to rule more than one layer of the Abyss? Some share their rule with others. Amamot has three of the places in his domain, and possibly a fourth that he had been working to acquire when she was taken here. By now, he may have succeeded.

Ivar's request causes her to pause and think for a moment. "Most of what I can do is best done outdoors. If I kill anyone in here, they'll ban me from the place," she says with a smirk. "Finish your wine, and then I'll take you out to somewhere we have more space."

"The Conqueror Lord," Ivar muses. He sounds not so dissimilar from the way Ivar and his Norse forces have been fighting the past couple of years. A slow smile spreads across his face. "I like that title."

"Wouldn't want that, would we?" He says, mirroring her tone if not her smirk. About the only people Ivar cares about in this city are his roommates. Everyone is disposable in their own ways. He limps out after Caedra once he's done with his wine, leaning heavily on his crutch. He needs to stop using his braces so often or he's going to end up breaking a bone one of these days.

Whatever may have happened to the boy between the last visit here and this one, that vicious streak of his clearly hasn't changed. He reminds her so much of her own people. Such a shame that a mind like his has to be trapped in such a fragile body.

But parts of these problems can be fixed. They head outside, and she turns to him with a smile. "We're going over there," she points, indicating beyond the perimeter of the city. Quite a distance for a crippled boy to walk on crutches. But the pointing hand is drawn between them and she gestures in the air, tracing some invisible shape as she speaks a few words in her own harsh, alien tongue. She places one hand on herself, then, and the other brushes Ivar's shoulder - and at the touch, he will feel lighter than he ever has.

"Come with me. Just direct yourself by thinking about where you want to go, and your body will follow," she instructs, as she then lifts up into the air and beckons for him to fly alongside.

Ivar's body had always been his biggest weakness, but what it had done was strengthen his mind and emotions over the years. His father had told him that he had a strength his brothers would never had, that he was special not in spite of his legs, but because of them. He'd been right.

Ivar frowns when she points out where they're heading. There's no way he's going to get there on his legs and crawling will take forever. He wonders if this woman understands exactly how his disability affects him. But then she brushes his shoulder with her hand and magic suddenly happens.

There's a sharp smile on his face when that happens. "You are fast becoming one of the most interesting people here." Plus a definite favorite if she could teach him to fly.

"We're still just picking up where we left off," she replies with a laugh - one that's clearer than most here ever hear. Less sinister, although not without its own cruel intentions - but none of them are to be leveled against Ivar. Genuine allies like him are rare among mortals and she knows to treasure them, for it's how she was treated when she was human, too. There are people that one does not simply throw away carelessly. Ivar is to be nurtured.

She glides up into the air and over the city, though she hangs back to make sure he's keeping up. The flight won't last forever, but ten minutes is more than enough to get them some distance out to where the city thins to tundra and the monsters begin to prowl. Of course, if he's enjoying himself rather than making a beeline to follow, she'll understand. He had gone flying rather than helping her in the first fight she had picked against these people, and she allowed it so that he would understand the gifts she can bring to him.

For most of the night, Rey has made herself scarce, mostly spending time down in the cellar prepping to head out tomorrow. She lets the other volunteers handle the service part when needed, but so far it's been a mercifully quiet night.

Glass of bourbon in one hand and a makeshift hook in the other, she pauses when she notices a familiar face speak up. Surprise does not grace her expression when she takes a long drink, standing silent at first.

"Looks like you got defrosted."

Truth be told, Rey hadn't been paying close attention to that whole incident. She didn't want to get involved in the matter and had her own issues to contend with at the time. Such happens.

"I did!" she replies, rather more upbeat about the whole thing than she probably has any right to be. But in retrospect, it's amusing that anyone thought it would slow her down for long. Ice? Very funny, really. And while Yusuke didn't end up paying with it for his life just yet, there will surely come a day when he and everyone else here suffers immensely at her hands.

Not now, though. Perhaps if the gods had been slower to start filtering back in, she would have decimated the city, but what unfortunate timing to awaken right as they started returning.

"Six weeks, right? It sounds like not much happened in that time, aside from all of you simrevi getting to join me in the cold after all. An amusing twist of fate, isn't it?"

Caedra's not exactly going on a furious rampage through the city like people thought she would. And with the gods one, would the limitations they put on her hold as well? Now there's a scary thought.

For the most part, Rey opted to stay out of that whole business. In her experience, shit will happen no matter what she does.

"Yes, well, it's what half of the city signed up for -- myself included. Never was affected by the cold." Being a walking furnace helps a lot in that regard. She definitely has ways of making the Speakeasy more comfortable in that regard as well.

Too bad she's unwilling to make use of it to bring back the same warmth to the hot springs.

"Neither heat nor cold, much like myself. I know. A remarkable machine, to be so impervious," she muses, but it comes with a hint of teasing familiarity this time around. Oh, sure, Caedra would still certainly love to pull Rey apart and find out exactly how she ticks - or rather, hand her off to someone more competent at artifice to do that for her - but it isn't likely to happen while stuck here. Besides, Rey has proven herself useful. Even vaguely helpful, even if out of self-interest. At least she isn't outright hostile even though she knows the sort of creature Caedra is, so already she's doing better than some of the others here in that regard.

"In that case, I expect you won't stick around here long, right? Our surroundings hold secrets, and these ones won't require a ship to get to. Unless you have responsibilities chaining you to this place?"

Not as impervious to certain things as Rey would like to be, but she's not so stupid to share that thought aloud with Caedra around.

"Other than the Speakeasy?" Rey gestures to her surroundings and shrugs. "Mn, not really. And even then, it's nothing that can't be trusted to someone else to manage for a while."

She's sure that someone like Laura would be able to hold the fort while Rey is away. They managed it well enough a few times without her when Rey wasn't around to tend to this place every waking minute.

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Intro Log: A Day at the Beach

Speakeasy mingle.

Caedra | OTA

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